Hailing from the continent of Australia, Dark Order is the first true thrash metal band that I’ve had the pleasure to hear from the land down under. No longer just the land of AC/DC and Silverchair….Dark Order are here to shove a huge middle finger in your face and thrash you senseless!

You wanna know the first thing I thought of when I cranked up “5000 Years of Violence”?? - SLAAAAAYERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!! They wear their influences well and never turn into a rip off. The other two bands that come to mind when listening to this are The Haunted and The Crown. Unlike Slayer, of course neither were an influence, but they fall into the same musical category in my opinion. 5000 Years of Violence beings with the ass-kicking song “What Is Past Is Prelude” which contains a lengthy introduction with lots of catchy riffing in the vein of Slayer. That means it’s aggressive, fast-paced thrash metal. Besides the thick thrashing rhythms there is even some tremolo picked sections, thus the reason for my reference to The Crown. The intensity is kept up with “Odio Puro.” Unfortunately, the solos are un-inspired which is my biggest letdown with this CD. With thrashing music like this you need ripping leads and some insanity. “Attrition of Fear” has some very obvious Slayer riffing…. awesome. “Tyrannical” has an excellent intro…vicious. Unfortunately it slows up after this godly intro but never fear this brutal section is returned to in the song…one of my favorite moments on the CD for sure!!! The song, “The Dark Order” was different on the vocals having a Glen Benton section. I’ll pass on that thanks – one Deicide is enough. The riffing in the song is as everywhere on the CD, kick ass. However, Dark Order succeeds at thrash, not at death metal.

Since this CD was recoded in 1998 a few line-up changes were made in the band. The most important possibly being the removal of their lead guitarist. With the addition of someone more solid this band will be set to do some serious damage. More information on Dark Order, including info on how you can order their CD, is online at http://dark-order.tripod.com